If there were a pair on the Jackson City Council least likely to hang out together outside chambers, it'd be Councilwoman LaRita Cooper-Stokes, D-Ward 3, and Councilman Quentin Whitwell, R-Ward 1, right?

So, imagine my surprise this week when Cooper-Stokes and Whitwell appeared united in an effort to dismantle the Jackson Redevelopment Authority.

I was all set to write a moving piece about how this unlikely duo was going to reform city government as we know it, declare war on the establishment and go on zany adventures together. But cracks in their newfound alliance started to show before they could even get the item on the floor for a vote.

Cooper-Stokes then took the mic to explain why, exactly, she was trying to abolish a redevelopment authority that's been around since 1968. When she heard that, Barrett-Simon quickly interrupted and withdrew her motion. (She didn't realize what agenda item the council was on, you see.) So that left the council with a second but no motion, meaning the item wasn't actually on the floor for discussion.

Here we join our unlikely protagonists:

"Ms. Stokes, would you like to make a motion?" Whitwell suggested.

"No, I would like to make a comment," Stokes replied.

"Well, it's your order," Whitwell urged.

"Yes," she acknowledged. "No. No, I wouldn't. I just want to make my comment."

For the uninitiated, Robert's Rules of Order (by which the council is supposed to operate, according to city code) says you can't have any discussion on an item without a motion and a second. So Whitwell here is trying to get it on the floor. Cooper-Stokes, meanwhile, is resisting because she doesn't want it to go to a vote where it will fail.

Well, that continued for some time, with Whitwell eventually withdrawing his second and making another motion, which died because the sponsor wouldn't second that one either.

Stay tuned for part two, in which the council president allows Cooper-Stokes and Whitwell to discuss the motion anyway, then sends the order to the Planning Committee, which is the City Council's version of purgatory.

New domain

Got dot gop?

Well, no one does, yet, but that's about to change.

In late 2013, whoever it is that regulates the Internet is going to roll out a bunch of new Web domains, finally freeing us from the unchecked reign of the tyrannical .com suffix.

So in addition to .com, .net, .org, .gov, .co, .biz, .info, .aero, a select few receiving approval will be able to create websites with specialized domain names, like .amazon, .nike, .lol and - yes - .sucks.

Anyway, the Republican State Leadership Committee announced in a news release this week that the Grand Ol' Party is one of those select few. "Soon you will be able to register your own .gop website or email address to show your identity as a Republican. Picture www.candidate.gop, mail@yourname.gop, or www.vote.gop," the group wrote.

You can read more at the group's website, www.dotgop.co, which, fittingly, has already spurned .com for the greener pastures of .co.

It remains to be seen how widely it will be used - the RSLC's mission is to elect Republicans to state offices, not national ones, but Politico reports the project has gotten "enthusiastic" feedback from national groups like the Republican National Committee.

That enthusiasm may have something to do with the fact the RSLC footed the bill. The fee for creating your own top-level domain is $185,000, Gawker reported.